Tolerance tied to exposure: study

Tolerance tied to exposure: study

Is your workplace a miniature United Nations, with colleagues who trace their origins to many different parts of the globe? Or does everyone you work with come from a similar background?Photo by
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MONTREAL — Is your workplace a miniature United Nations, with colleagues who trace their origins to many different parts of the globe?

Or does everyone you work with come from a similar background?

The answer probably tells a lot about how open you are to people from different cultures, according to a new study by the Association for Canadian Studies.

The more diverse your workplace or school, the more accepting you will be of diversity in other areas of life, like the friends you choose and the neighbourhood you live in, the four-country study shows.

Nearly three-quarters of Canadians work or study in multicultural environments, and that is helping to make them among the world's most tolerant people, said Jack Jedwab, the association's executive director.

"Canadians are stacking up as the country that has the most diverse workplaces," he said.

Jedwab said the findings run counter to a widespread theory that increasingly pluralistic societies are making people less trusting and causing a decline in community involvement.

Harvard political scientist Robert Putnam has argued that "people living in ethnically diverse settings appear to 'hunker down' — that is, to pull in like a turtle."

Seventy-three per cent of Canadians describe their workplace or school as diverse, compared to 70 per cent of Americans, 68 per cent of Britons and 67 per cent of French respondents.

Sixty per cent of Quebecers work in a multicultural environment, the lowest proportion of any province.

Fewer Quebecers work and study in multicultural environments because most of the province's immigrants are concentrated in Montreal, and because the city attracts fewer immigrants than Toronto or Vancouver, Jedwab said. Also, Quebec has a lower proportion of cultural minorities in government jobs than other provinces, he said.

Fifty-seven per cent of francophones in Canada describe their workplace as diverse, compared to 74 per cent of anglophones and 83 per cent of people who speak a language other than English or French.

Contact at work translates into more friends from different cultures and more openness to living in a multicultural neighbourhood, the study shows.

More than three-quarters of Britons say most of their friends share their ethnic background, whereas just over two-thirds of Canadians and Americans do so.

Eight out of 10 francophones in Canada say most of their friends come from the same cultural background, compared to 66 per cent of English-Canadians and 55 per cent of people who speak a non-official language.

But attitudes are changing because younger generations are studying and working in increasingly pluralistic environments, Jedwab said.

Eighty per cent of Canadians age 18-24 describe their school or workplace as ethnically mixed, compared to about three-quarters of people in older age groups.

Among francophones, 70 per cent of those age 18-24 say they work in a multicultural environment, compared to 50 per cent of those age 25-34 and just over 40 per cent in older age groups. Three-quarters of anglophones 44 and younger describe their workplace as diverse, and in excess of 80 per cent of people 44 and under who speak a non-official language do so.

"There are considerable differences between these younger cohorts and their exposure to diversity through the workplace or schools and the older cohorts," Jedwab.

"Going forward, as our workplace milieu and schools will become more diverse, it will likely generate more openness to difference."

Leger Marketing surveyed 2,345 people online in September and October 2011 for the Canadian portion of the poll. The sample size would yield a margin of error of two per cent, 19 times out of 20.

ORC International surveyed more than 3,000 respondents in the U.S., Britain and France on behalf of the Association for Canadian Studies in September.

Montreal Gazette

mascot@montrealgazette.com

CULTURAL DIVERSITY AT WORK AND SCHOOL

My workplace/school is ethnically diverse

Canada 73%

France 67.3%

United States 70.2%

Britain 67.5%

Canada, by language

French 57%

English 74%

other 83%

Canada, by region

Quebec 60%

Ontario 77%

Manitoba/Saskatchewan 70%

Maritimes 70%

Alberta 81%

British Columbia 81%

I prefer living in a neighbourhood where most people share my cultural background

United States 58.2%

Britain 65.2%

Canada 53.5%

French 61.2%

English 45.1%

other language 45.8%

Source: Leger Marketing, ORC International via Association for Canadian studies

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